Our “Ask DICE” series continues as we let level artist Linnea Harrison answer questions on level design, sent in by the Battlefield 4 community. Read on for behind-the-scenes intel on the process of creating memorable maps for Battlefield 4.

Q: Can you explain the whole process of map design from start? First you must have an idea of location… and then? How do you test the gameplay of a new level design?
A: After the main setting of a game is decided, everyone at DICE sends in their awesome ideas for locations and interesting gameplay hooks. We had hundreds of ideas submitted for levels in Battlefield 4. The level designer/artists then starts blocking in some spaces for the level based on neat locations near the reference. The larger spaces (bases) are shifted around, reworked, reworked, and reworked until they are as fun as possible. We also have destruction in at this point, so that when we are playtesting the game, we do so with destruction in mind.

Then we go about making the level look awesome. Set dressing the level, adding really good lighting and effects, and polishing often takes a while but it is well worth the effort. Usually a lot of our testing is done here at the studio by our team. We take an hour or two each day to sit down and playtest levels and give feedback. This helps us get suggestions and ideas from everyone in the studio, rather than being stuck with just our own ideas.

Q: Will you be introducing any night maps or night variations? These maps don’t need to be pitch dark but I think a number of players would like to see a setting where IRNV and FLIR scopes, along with flares, would be useful to blind enemies better.
A: Good question! In general, we tend to think that night maps look pretty darn cool. You can implement some really neat lighting effects and encourage use of gadgets that generally aren’t used as much, with some really fun results. But there are a few things we considered with creating night maps.

Statistically speaking, most people don’t play night maps – maps set during the day get played more. We know this from tracking the numbers of maps played through on Battlefield 3 and Bad Company 2. Even if the map is really well-designed, players tend to gravitate more towards day-time maps.

Furthermore, players that crouch, take cover and wait forever to shoot someone running by in most maps gets even more common on night maps, where it’s tough to differentiate between objects and people. This has proved to be quite annoying in playtests. It’s possible to balance this – better heat vision, better spotting and so on – but for Battlefield 4 we focused on day-time maps. Future nighttime maps are absolutely something we’re always considering, though.

The iconic Paracel Storm map went through several changes before being finalized.

Q: How do you design a map to work well with multiple game modes and what are your biggest challenges when doing so?
A: Given that Battlefield is a vast game with many vehicles and open areas, we first try to make sure that the level is overall balanced for Conquest (this means working on symmetry in terms of base location, perfecting infantry routes and cover, vehicle routes, main routes, flank routes, and visibility). Conquest is our most basic game mode, and designing levels with that in mind tends to create a fairly balanced map.

The greatest challenge is to determine what sort of balance we want in the maps. We aim to have awesome infantry, vehicle, air, and naval gameplay on all maps, but some game modes will be more popular on certain maps. Take Operation Locker for example, where we wanted to focus on infantry combat and Rush. We decided to make that map more linear in nature to allow for better Rush gameplay. With that in mind, we created side routes and flanks for each base, and made sure the distances allowed for a variety of weapons used (outdoor versus indoor distances are very different), but would focus on shorter range combat.

Q: Why didn’t you include a random weather and Time of Day system in Battlefield 4? Making it randomly generated, wind, sun, storm, dust, and dawn would really increase the replay value of the game.
A: Even though each Battlefield game is unscripted in many ways, we wanted the experience to still have an emotional impact and match the adrenaline arc of a normal gameplay round. That way, as more buildings get destroyed, the tickets count down and the gameplay gets more tense, so does the level.

Operation Locker was designed with infantry combat in mind and had a more linear layout than all other Battlefield 4 maps.

Q: I was wondering if it is possible to add maps that take full advantage of the Rush game mode more? I feel the maps at the moment seem to suffer in this mode because of all the other game types.
A: Rush is a game mode that is really fun to play on many of the Battlefield 4 maps, and it’s also one of our favorite game modes in the Multiplayer team. However, our maps are generally built for Conquest, as this is a game mode that is played by the majority (around 70%) of our players. This means that we always need to make sure that the map is 100% awesome in Conquest first-hand, but that being said, we also work hard to make Rush a good option on every map.

Q: How many people are involved in the creation of a map? How long does it take to complete a map like Paracel Storm? Do you use greyboxing to playtest the level before its fully ‘painted’?
A: It depends on the map – some maps only take 2-3 people to create. Others take around 8-10 people, like Siege of Shanghai. Paracel Storm took a whopping 6 months to complete – but that was partly because it also got redone a few times before being finalized. That being said, some maps are created in just under 2 months. And yes, we often do greybox when we start playtesting, just to make sure the larger spaces and shapes will work.

Q: Say I wanted to get a job at DICE as a level designer, what sort of requirements would I need?
A: Usually we look more at skills than requirements. If you want to design levels, you should have a website/portfolio that shows some levels you have designed. Grab a copy of UDK or Unity and start making levels and playing them with friends. Read about level design and game design. Learn about game theory and hardware specifications. Try doing a map remake on one of your favorite Battlefield maps – how would you change the layout? Do a sketch or top down design. Ideas are great, but if you can explain them and back them up with an understanding of why the idea is a good one, that is even more impressive!

Then it’s just a matter of applying (we actually have a position open for a level designer in Los Angeles right now, so get to it!)

Thank you for reading and submitting your questions to us. Stay tuned for more Q&A’s with our developers, and remember to read the previous editions of “Ask DICE” if you haven’t done so already.

Is it possible that you can come out with an update that puts all of the maps in one rotation? It would be really great if we could play through all the maps instead of playing the DLC maps over and over in the same roatation.

It would appear that there is now a general consensus by the Battlefield 4 players that they wish to have more night maps and i am one of those players and i can not see why you could not have planned an expansion pack around this like Battlefield 2 Special Forces i liked that expansion as it made you think about what you were doing and with the addition of the night vision goggles gadget with a limited battery life. It gave players both day and night maps and added gadgets like the legendary zip line.

It is a pity that this was not looked at more by the game designers as i said this was an exciting way to play the game in both night and rain and now that their is the tac lights in the game unlike battlefield 2 SF which didnt have it would added the bonus of blinding opponents that are wearing NVG.

What are the odds of a nighttime or really dark map? maybe a few street/building lights but I think having a map that forces players to use nightvision and flashlights would be pretty awesome, it would force people to play a bit different and more team orientated.

It would be pretty awesome to have a map like siege of shanghai but have a night cycle so it starts being night or day time and half way through the match it becomes day time. This would allow for players to have to adapt to different environments depending at certain times in the match.

Maps are fine its easy to say frostbite has potential to create all of your pretty level changing features… the maps are fine how u make them just please for the love of god give the heli pilots a flare cool down system as to the primary pods where u have 2 sets then another 1 on stand by then u have a cool down time of say 2 mins to fully get your Counter measures back other wise with out this flying is next to impossible

I think you should have a game mode where there is a heavilly fortiffied base that one team protects while the others try to infiltrate and destroy targets inside the base. But the base would need to have serious defenses. The attackers would need to work like special forces to accomplish goals. I think the best way to do it is have no respawns as well.

Q: I was wondering if it is possible to add maps that take full advantage of the Rush game mode more? I feel the maps at the moment seem to suffer in this mode because of all the other game types.
A: Rush is a game mode that is really fun to play on many of the Battlefield 4 maps, and it’s also one of our favorite game modes in the Multiplayer team. However, our maps are generally built for Conquest, as this is a game mode that is played by the majority (around 70%) of our players. This means that we always need to make sure that the map is 100% awesome in Conquest first-hand, but that being said, we also work hard to make Rush a good option on every map.

As a Rush player, after reading this I am utterly disappointed and I feel betrayed…
It seems that Rush has had it’s day now, so for me at least BF is now redundant. I knew the maps were bad but now that it appears this is a result of Dice intentionally speniding more time on Conquest compared to Rush, I don’t think I can support the game anymore.

Titanfall is around the corner, so I suppose i’ll play that instead. That or until BC3 comes out.

i liked the night maps in BF2 special forces. i have no issue with darkness or ever Fog rolling in and out of a map. something to make people hunt you down, it does have to be pitch black just not a twilight map either.

”70% plays conquest” yeah well that’s what happens when the Rush mode is broken. How can you even use that ”statistic” as a point? If X is broken, more players will play Y. A child could see that.

Also how can you use ”Few players played nighttime maps in bf3” as a argument that it will not be in BF4? Did you ever consider that it wasn’t because of the Nighttime itself but that map Design? Furthermore those maps weren’t even Night, a cloudy evening would be more accurate.

And now for the final question that you Obviously dodged: Why did you sell BF4 on Levolution and didn’t implemented it in it’s first DLC? It’s so extremely cheap and wrong that I cannot even believe it. Levolution was your biggest sell point you had and you removed it. That’s like admitting that you didn’t have anything else to sell the game with, wich is more and more obvious that you didn’t have.

If there’s no Levolution in the rest of the DLC’s you’re done. The consumers can only take so much D**k in the A$$ until they get up and walk away.

Get your $hit together and stop trying to glorify your broken game. It’s embarrassing to watch.

where did u get 70 per cent of players play more conquest then rush? for me rush is the most fun if the map is even, which not many bf4 levels are. most are broken. so my only option is conquest. and a lot of people feel this way. both modes are amazing but both even

A night time map in later expensionpacks would be a great twist to bf4, many people wants it. I know u tested it out there in dice, but u ment it slowed down the Gameplay… Maybye that’s what the community want’s? A stealh type or map where u need to have IRNV optic or Flash lights would be great… It would be great to see those optics and tactical lights play a role on the battlefield. Im sure that u should realy consider the night time idea, maybye in the jungle or in the wood’s, just an idea, but u can’t forget it. It is what the community wants :-)

“Rush is a game mode that is really fun to play on many of the Battlefield 4 maps, and it’s also one of our favorite game modes in the Multiplayer team. However, our maps are generally built for Conquest, as this is a game mode that is played by the majority (around 70%) of our players.” Quote

70% plays conquest ok . But you could do a better job with Rush in BF4 . BF3 rush was great.
BC2 rush was great . I understand why u left this game mode alone cuz EA rushed you .

I still hope you ll improve Rush mode in future . To bad BF4 isn’t remarkable game of 2014 for me like BC2 or BF3 was .

Everyone please post to let DICE know that we expect a better Rush experience! We aren’t playing it because BF4 isn’t set up for it. Rush (as best utilized in BFBC2) is the best mode for tactical gameplay. I believe the “no one plays night maps” point is flawed for the same reason. Tehran was just plain not fun. Had nothing to do with it being a night map. Same goes for Death Valley. Nelson Bay was pretty fun.

I was really expecting the question regarding levolution, or the complete lack of it, in China Rising to be addressed as it appeared to be the most popular question on the submit questions page. Given that a massive part of Battlefield 4′s marketing revolved around this, how does something that is so close to the core of the gameplay get neglected in the first batch of DLC?

Just like in previous “Ask DICE”. No straight answers. Night maps? “Considering”. Weather? “Adrenaline”. Rush? “Work hard” What answers? When You speak about night maps you talking about “Bad Company 2″ and “Battlefield 3″? There is no night maps in those titles. So what can you say about it? Last night maps we’ve seen on “Battlefield 2″. But You are too young to remember that I think, lol! Why you created “Rush” if you don’t want to care about it? You were so proud of “Rush” earlier…

I think it should be a Night time map in the jungel were u need to have some irnv optic or Flash light to see anything and all this plants that u can hide behind and take away the “spoting” thing so u cant run around and spam a botton and all enemy will get a marker over there head, something new would be a great change for the battlefield series. A night type of stealh map is something almost everyone would love and it have been alot of comments on. The Night time idea… It just can’t get forgotten, it would be a great and positive twist to Battlefield 4:-)

“However, our maps are generally built for Conquest, as this is a game mode that is played by the majority (around 70%) of our players”… Our group MUCH prefers Rush over Conquest, but in BF4, we almost always play Conquest because Rush maps weren’t laid out well. Make Rush better and more people will play it. If you treat Rush like the red headed step child, then why would anyone play it. GIVE RUSH SOME LOVE!!!

Q: Why didn’t you include a random weather and Time of Day system in Battlefield 4? Making it randomly generated, wind, sun, storm, dust, and dawn would really increase the replay value of the game.
A: Even though each Battlefield game is unscripted in many ways, we wanted the experience to still have an emotional impact and match the adrenaline arc of a normal gameplay round. That way, as more buildings get destroyed, the tickets count down and the gameplay gets more tense, so does the level.

I feel that this question wasn’t answered. I’d love to see greater weather effects added to gameplay and feel that it would add a greater degree of freshness to levels especially if it was at random.

Also will there be a level design competition for Battlefield 4 like there was for Battlefield 3?

That’s pretty much the well thought up response for saying we are to lazy. There is no excuse for random weather, I mean come on. What could you possibly say to to make me say “Oh yea, you shouldn’t add weather changes to maps, that would be to realistic”.

Question (TDM): Is it possible to tweak the storm on Paracel Storm, so the peak of the storm when it rolls in, last a little bit longer. It is so cool when bullet sounds get drowned in the noise from the storm, making it a bit harder to hear and see other player when this happens.?

Complete waist of time asking questions as you never answer the real ones and most asked ones peolle want answers too such as why make maps with choppers in them that have no cover and then put a MAA on the map that can cover most of it sitting out of bounds ?

true night maps are cool. but like at least patches of total darkness.. where flash lights and flares are a must. the gay slightly dark blue tinged hue of the bf3 maps was terrible. no point in it being a night map. and dawnbreaker?? same again. far too bright. get a REAL night map. then everyone would play it.

Not a question so much as an idea, but I feel like tall grassland would be well implemented in a game with dynamic environment destruction like BF4. Early on it would make for nice cover for infantry, with only the swishing of the grass to give away positions to armor or helos. Maybe start out during the day with a rainstorm ending, so grass won’t ignite easily and embankments/trenches/tunnels full of water, but draining. Then, after a while, the grass dries out and the dug-out paths drain off, so that the grass can turn into a maze of death, and the new pathways become preferable. Let the night start to fall around the same time, and the areas with fire stay decently lit, everywhere else becomes hunting grounds. That way the night gimmicky equipment will have a place, and there can still be other objectives you can reach without flashlights or flares.

I hope this doesnt come out wrong but why even ask the community to ask a question when all these QnA are pretty much done up by their PR department not questions really done by the fans. i must of seen at least 3 pages worth of people asking for the china rising levolution, but not one mention of it.

Defuse maps need to be remixed to fit the game mode. The matches just don’t play out right.The locations are good ideas the just seem unfinished. The maps look to clean and do not look lived in. Much of the map looks copy and pasted. There are lots of buildings but you can’t go in most of the rooms or floors.The locations are good ideas the just seem unfinished. The hotel map could use a sewer systems under it and more then two floors in the hotel.

Listen I have no problems with the maps on any mode but rush, the barriers are a joke, there too small and too close to the mcoms who’s idea was it to make the mcoms so close to the barrier? It’s impossible to attack and be tactical about it, the mcoms in bf3 were great distance from the barriers, it’s sad that this is happening you guys managed to get rid of base rapping but designed the barriers poorly, please if it’s possible fix the barriers for rush its driving me crazy..

I agree. On maps like OP Locker you have to almost commit suicide to flank around the first set of Mcoms, especially the one on the inside. The second set is even worse, the defending team can ALWAYS lock that down by just placing a few claymores. I hate rush on bf4, I loved it on bf3. DICE when, in the future, you make new maps, think about Grand Bazar and OP Metro, those were nice Rush maps.

Please please please bring back Strike At Karkand, many diehard Battlefield fans will agree with this. This is a very popular map and the map design is immaculate. Bring back the old BF2 Karkand design where MEC (BF2) / RUS (BF3) will have an island of more flags than just F and G…. possibly an H flag? or I flag? Karkand was a linear map like Op Metro/Locker and is perfect for vehicles and those lone infantry squads who rush the back bases (like how some people do it in metro and lockers)… it was a FUN map and you should really consider on bringing it back or at least have a similar map to it. The desert/foggy theme no MAA, no Jets, no attack or scout heli or transport heli, just simply land vehicles LAV, Tank, Jeep, and infantry. PLEASE i would love to pay for another map similar to Karkand build, or bring back Strike At Karkand indefinitely! I know plenty of battlefield fans will agree with this! It has been a super popular map on Battlefield 2 for even longer than Battlefield 3 or 4 was out…. think about this….

I like to see a big map like Paracel storm with a much bigger island for tanks to shell out at each other on. I come to play Battlefield for the vehicle warfare. One of my good friends that played BF3 with me on PS3 doesn’t like the unbalanced part when driving a Tank. He reached level 100 in a Tank in BF3 and I reached little over level 50 in BF3. He says to me there is now no skill in driving a Tank because engineers with auto lock on weapons take no skill to kill a tank. As for the Armor in a Tank where is the system to know if your side or front or back is broken and needs repaired to put back up your armor like it was in BF4. I tend to use currently the active protection on my Tank but there are times where it doesn’t last enough time to retreat or take out another vehicle before you get out gunned by 5-10 engineers. Like someone said above being a Assault or Support class seems to be pointless on some maps because there’s not enough cover in areas of objective. I’m also disappointed in helicopters as well I’m a decent pilot but I tend to get shot down to easy. I know there’s going to be a fix for Mobile AA’s to reduce there range. But I also find that Stingers have a long range as well. I run EMC’s and when I get locked on I blast my EMC and head away from that area but yet still get hit by the guy(s) using lock on missiles. Either reduce the time EMC’s become available again or incress the time you use them to get away. I know there needs to be a more rock paper scissors but that needs to be involved with team/squads working together to take out a helicopter no just one dude on the ground with a stinger and taking out a helicopter and end up getting “killed in action” vs him/her getting the point for taking out the helicopter. Hopefully there’s someone out there that loves Battlefield series for the vehicle warfare as much as I do. People that play infantry you can learn how to fly/drive vehicles. One Attack helicopter can’t win the game. Those on the ground taking the objective normally wins. Sorry for the long post but I love my vehicle warfare in Battlefield games like BF4.

“Given that Battlefield is a vast game with many vehicles and open areas, we first try to make sure that the level is overall balanced for Conquest (this means working on symmetry in terms of base location, perfecting infantry routes and cover, vehicle routes, main routes, flank routes, and visibility”

I think you need to work a little harder on the infantry routes and cover on some of the maps.. A lot of the maps are overly dominated by vehicles, which leads to the majority of players just playing as Engineer and Recon..

The amount of non stop bombarding of vehicle projectiles on infantry from all angles and lack of cover between flags on some maps is ridiculous.. The amount of vehicles in the sky and in the sea shooting at you and lack of cover is overwhelming for the Assault and Support class somtimes

Is “Final Stand” going to have new maps, or will dinosaurs just be added to the current multiplayer maps? Personally I would love to choose my favorite loadout and fight off raptors in the streets of Shanghai, T-Rexes on Rogue Transmission, and have to escape Megaladons hunting us like seals in RHIBs on Paracel Storm. Whether you keep the same maps or add new ones doesn’t matter that much to me; Battlefield EASILY has the greatest maps of any FPS I’ve ever played. Keep up the amazing work DICE! Can’t wait to see what the future DLCs have to offer!

Hi I was wondering are you ever going to fix Dawnbreaker on Xbox 360? Most players don’t even know there is a sunrise as it freezes before that happens. Its very frustrating as it is one of my favorite maps in any of the BF games…

Nice! I really enjoyed this read, thanks to Linnea for taking the time to answer these. Map design has always been one of the coolest parts of Battlefield – usually thanks to the size, you get a different experience every time, and I’ve always loved winding up in combat in some random part of the map due to a random encounter, and you get to approach the combat situation and go “ok, how do I deal with this?”. Definitely a fun element of BF level design.

That said if I can put my 2 cents in, yes please at least throw in a night map or two. Sure, it may not be the most commonly played, but there are a group of players who really like it, and while statistically it may not be played the most, nobody has EVER seen a night map with levolution yet. Who knows if this is a difference maker?

Starting with a well lit city at night, and have lights either get shot out, or a generator destroyed to put it into complete darkness? Could be a fan favorite. Don’t know if you don’t try! Right?

First I would love to say that I absolutely adore the realism and seamless reality that Levolution and the new engine has brought to this community. I’d love to suggest a few things. For example. Weather transitions are incredible. From things like the sun coming up in Dawnbreaker and the storm rolling though the Paracel Islands. I as well as many others, would love to see more of this in every map. Continuing. Remember opening doors in the campaign? Why not have that, opening and closing doors in multiplayer. Same way we can go inside the cargo crates and trains, same principle. But on actual building doors. And a huge one to finish. The Golmud railway is a great map! But there should be more featuring the train. Like a longer train with multiple cars to have combat within. This war train should roll within the map. Not through it. What I mean is that it should be weavin in and around other points of the map. Continuously flowing around and through the map. A connected circle with forks to turn the paths of the train. And the on board battle. Which can be brought to a screeching halt if the players can trigger a pillar-decimating, chain-explosion, taking the railway down and the train tumbling off into a pile of scrap and deadly debris!